No more excuses: an industry response to the language, literacy and numeracy challenge

• Industry Skills Councils

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19 April 2011Language, literacy and numeracy (LLN) are the essential underpinning skills that enable people to be productive in their work, to continue to learn and develop, and to participate fully in society. This is an obvious statement, the truth of which has been recognised for decades. But it needs to be made, as progress to a satisfactory situation has been slow:

• Literally millions of Australians have insufficient LLN skills to benefit fully from training or to participate effectively at work
• The situation looks as if it could be getting worse, not better: the LLN performance of Australian students1 has, over the past decade, worsened in comparison to other OECD countries
• Access to LLN expertise at the right time in the right way remains limited.

LLN issues and challenges manifest differently in different industries and workplaces, but some similar challenges are faced across all industries. They include inadequately prepared workforce entrants, the challenges of an ageing workforce, increasing use of technology, increasing compliance requirements, and a demand for higher level skills. This represents a considerable list of potential barriers to learning and to an effective workforce.

The Industry Skills Councils (ISCs) believe that responsibility for building the LLN skills of Australians should be shared by industry and all education sectors. Nothing less than a co-ordinated response to the LLN challenge will succeed. To achieve this, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) should establish an overarching blueprint for action on LLN in Australia 2012-2022 to identify and address long-term goals that will profoundly shift the capacity of learners and the workforce and significantly impact our nation’s future.

More immediately, within the Vocational Education and Training (VET) system, ISCs propose:

• better identification of the LLN skills of learners before training, and targeted funding to address identified LLN skill gaps
• the inclusion of clear advice on LLN skill requirements in Training Packages and/or their companion volumes
• the implementation of a strategy to develop greater national awareness of LLN issues, including the de-stigmatisation of LLN skill development
• an increased capacity in the VET system, and all practitioners, to support the LLN skill development needs of learners and workers
• better-targeted solutions for building the LLN skills of workers/learners.